You are conscious
Summary
You can be certain that you are conscious, in a way that you cannot be certain of anything else.
I am not sure the best way to communicate this insight through writing, but I will try anyway, through part of a dialogue I once wrote.
Alice: Can you be sure that you are conscious?
Bob: Hmm. No, I could be a simulation, too.
Alice: Let me try another way. Doesn’t it seem to you like something is happening? Sights, sounds, smells, thoughts, emotions, etc.?
Bob: Yes, but those could all be illusions, too.
Alice: I’m not asking what they are. I’m asking: doesn’t it damn sure seem like something is happening?
Bob: I guess, yes.
Alice: Guessing isn’t good enough.
Bob: Well maybe “seeming” is an illusion, too….
Alice: Drop the philosophy for now. Don’t try to dissect my words. Just look, and answer as simply as possible: doesn’t it seem like something is happening?
Bob: Yes.
Alice: Yes like maybe yes, or like definitely yes?
Bob: [Pauses, closes eyes, and listens…] Okay, I’m with you. Definitely yes.
Alice: Awesome.
Forget Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” nonsense. Thinking has nothing to do with it, and the idea of a self has nothing to do with it.
This “sheer fact of seeming” is the one thing it is meaningless to doubt. Now, if you don’t actually do the exercise of looking, and instead let your intellect run off with the question, it will come up with all sorts of clever reasons to doubt it. That’s a great way to win an argument or get a philosophy Ph.D., but useless for waking up.
Despite this being literally the only thing to see, somehow you continually overlook it. When you do look, you immediately experience a brief return to a glorious place you never left. This is a small form of awakening.
Bob: I admit it’s lovely. I think I will explore it further.
In truth, you cannot even say “I am conscious.” All you can say is “there is consciousness, the sheer fact of seeming” (and “my perspective” is the form it presently seems to be taking). But we will leave aside this detail for now.